Health Care
Wisconsin doctor known as ‘Candy Man’ stripped of medical license
The former chief of staff of the Tomah VA Medical Center has agreed to permanently surrender his license to practice medicine in Wisconsin.
Opiates
Prescriptions of four potent opiates to veterans more than tripled in the decade after 9/11, contributing to drug abuse, addiction and suicide. The VA is trying to combat the problem, with uneven results.
Hidden Abuse Under the Watchtower
Curl up with Reveal’s top #longreads from 2015
Check out five pieces of our best long-form writing from 2015, as selected by Reveal’s staff.
Opiates
VA fires doctor known as ‘Candy Man’
The chief of staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Tomah, Wisconsin — exposed by Reveal for his opiate prescription practices — has been fired, effective Nov. 9.
Opiates
Wisconsin veterans hospital’s former director no longer on VA payroll
Officials said the Tomah, Wisconsin, VA medical facility’s former director is no longer working for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the latest development after our investigation of the hospital’s improper prescription practices.
Benefits
Federal report confirms veteran’s overdose death at Tomah VA hospital
Federal investigators have confirmed that a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs killed Marine Corps veteran Jason Simcakoski, a psychiatric patient at the Tomah, Wisconsin, veterans hospital known as “Candy Land” for its rampant use of opiates.
Opiates
VA whistleblower asks Obama to hire inspector general from outside
Ryan Honl, a Gulf War veteran who quit his job at the Tomah, Wisconsin, veterans hospital after becoming aware of rampant opiate overprescription there, said the problems would only continue if a new watchdog was found within the agency.
Opiates
Embattled VA inspector general to resign after calls for his ouster
Department of Veterans Affairs’ Deputy Inspector General Richard Griffin had been under fire for more than a year over problems at VA hospitals, including the overprescription of opiates at the Tomah, Wisconsin, facility dubbed “Candy Land.”
Opiates
Congressional hearing reveals 4 more deaths at Tomah, Wisconsin, VA
A congressional hearing today revealed more unexpected deaths at the Tomah, Wisconsin, VA – known as “Candy Land” for the ease with which narcotic painkillers were prescribed – during Dr. David Houlihan’s decade as the hospital’s chief of staff.
Opiates
Nearly 100,000 veterans prescribed dangerous tranquilizer-opiate combo
Nearly 100,000 veterans currently are receiving prescriptions for both tranquilizers and narcotic painkillers from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a potentially deadly combination that is explicitly discouraged by agency guidelines.
Health Care
See results of government investigations into VA in Tomah, Wisconsin
Our investigation disclosing skyrocketing opiate prescriptions and retaliatory management practices at a VA medical center in Wisconsin touched off a variety of federal and state government investigations.
